David Attenborough on life

He is human after all. Noting my tape recorder and the digital
version next to it, Sir David Attenborough nods approvingly. He
recalls an instance in the Fifties when he interviewed Queen Sãlote
of Tonga - "almost a deity" - only to discover later that his
recording equipment had malfunctioned and recorded "not a
syllable".

Attenborough's words are worth recording. He has the rare gift
of being able to speak in complete and grammatically perfect
sentences. It only enhances the Biblical authority of the
82-year-old broadcaster's pronouncements, born out of more than
half a century in TV and his globe-straddling studies of the
natural world. Clive James put it best: "The chief attribute he
brings to this titanic subject is a gift for the simple statement
that makes complexity intelligible." His latest series,
First Life, explores the origins of life on Earth and
starts Friday 5 November.

On giving up his job as the BBC's director of programmes
in 1973 to make nature documentaries"I didn't discuss it with anyone. I'd educated the
children, they'd left home, I'd paid for the grand piano in the
house. I was convinced that I could make a living in broadcasting,
so it wasn't a huge step in that sense. But I knew that I wasn't
interested in the administrative skills necessary for high-flying
broadcasting senior executives."

On resisting the temptation to lick any toads for the
psychedelic effect"I've always been very apprehensive about monkeying about
with sensory perceptions and the things that make us what we
are."

…And the one time he shot an animal"In 1955 I was taken by an old jaguar hunter down into the
savannas of southern Guyana. We hid in a bush and
we peered out at this fantastic lake, covered with egrets and
ducks, just a marvellous, equable scene. Then this chap said, 'Do
you see over there? That's the eye of a cayman, the South American
crocodile.' I pressed the trigger and there was a loud bang and
then out of the water this crocodile leapt into the air. I can
still see its white belly arching in the sky. Then it smashed into
the water and all the ducks took off and everything screamed. And I
thought, 'Why on earth did I do that? Why did I do it?' And I've
never shot anything since."

On rejecting vegetarianism"As a biologist, I'm persuaded that my teeth and my guts
are the teeth and guts of an omnivore."

On what life is going to be like in 50 years"Parlous. The human population can't continue to rise
indefinitely. There are almost three times as many people living on
earth now as when I first started making TV programmes. And you
just can't go on doing that at this speed. Mass starvation is going
to be a reality."

On the state of the BBC"I think it's a uniquely important social element of the
country. Countries lacking a public service broadcasting
organisation lack a valuable element in their lives. There are
always those who want to attack it. Winston Churchill was the
first, during the 1926 General Strike when the BBC insisted on
putting forward an independent view."

On refusing to believe in God"Every human society feels the need to explain why it
exists, how it came about. Australian Aboriginals believe that a
huge python came out of a water hole in the desert, arched across
the sky like a rainbow and, when it came to earth, vomited out the
first men. There are 500 stories like this and they can't all be
true."

David Attenborough's First Life begins on BBC2 on Friday at
9pm.

Originally published in the March 2009 issue of British
GQ.

John Naughton

Contributing Editor John Naughton has interviewed Daniel Craig, David Beckham and Scarlett Johansson for GQ. Career highlight? Arm-wrestling Dolph Lundgren.